Nineteen-year-old Emily Sheppard is losing her sanity. Ever since her mob king boyfriend, Cameron Hillard, abandoned her for her own good, Emmy has been attempting to move on with her charmed college student life as if nothing happened. Now rejected from the underworld and left grieving over Cameron's alleged death, Emmy realizes she belongs nowhere. Worse yet, she is now keeping a dangerous secret. After just a short time with Emily, Cameron has lost control over his world. As he miserably attempts to return to what is left of his life and unravel the mess he has made of the underworld, Emily's hate turns to desperation. She needs to kill the kingpins responsible for Cameron's death before they come looking for her. As Cameron secretly observes Emily, he has no idea of the danger he has placed her in-or that it may already be too late for him to save her. Scare Crow is a tale of revenge, terror, and love as Emmy and Cameron embark on separate journeys to face enemies, correct past mistakes, and find their way to their destinies. Scare Crow A Crow's Row Love Story By Julie Hockley iUniverse LLC Copyright © 2014 Julie Hockley All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-4917-2615-0 CHAPTER 1 Emily Omen When the strap of my bra snapped, fanned out like a goose taking flight, and took a bend in the road just so it could whack me in the face, I knew it was a bad omen. Getting dressed had seemed like a necessary step. Not a step forward or a step backward. Just a step. At least it was something. Better than just sitting there. Better than waiting for something to happen. But I had to admit—the sting of the strap against my cheek had felt almost enlivening. I stared at my face in the plate-sized mirror of my bedroom wall, floating my fingers over the strap-length redness on my cheek. And I decided, to a 99 percent certainty, that the pleasure of physical pain didn't mean that I had been reduced to masochism. After weeks of having the emotional quotient of a rock, feeling something, feeling anything, was better than the numbness that had engulfed me. Though I did wish that my human need to feel hadn't left yet another blemish on my cheek. The other bruises and cuts, the ones that Victor had left behind, were just a pale pink now—easily concealed with a touch of foundation. I supposed that the newest addition to the facial collection was a reminder that, no matter what I tried, big or small—even getting dressed—I would never be quite the same again. I realized how bad of an omen the breaking of my bra strap was when I remembered that this was my one and only bra. The other one had already been eaten by the demonically possessed washing machine at the Laundromat. I sighed, pulled myself away from the reflection in the mirror, and tied a knot to hold what was left together. Meatball was hiding under my bed, where I longed to be. He had adjusted pretty quickly to our new existence—like moving in with me was just a vacation, a change of scenery. Within minutes of Carly dropping him off, he strolled around the place like he was renting it—sniffing everything, leaving his scent in creative places, like my roommate's bedpost. He wagged his tail, he jumped around, he begged to go out to run and play. To him, nothing was different other than the setting. It was as if nothing were wrong, as if Cameron were coming back. There were days when I envied him for his ability to forget so quickly. But sometimes I felt like he was a traitor. Cameron was something we had once shared, but only I was left with the pain of his memory. I couldn't even think of Cameron's name without my breath being cut short, feeling like I was going to throw up. Cameron's face colored my every thought, like everything I was seeing and feeling was through the veil of his beautiful face—like I was looking out through a window, and Cameron was my windowpane. It was excruciating. If it hadn't been for Meatball, I would have never left the house or the couch. I would have never gone to the supermarket to buy dog and people food; Meatball refused to eat anything unless I joined him. If it weren't for him, I would have never gone to the supermarket to buy food, only to be stopped at the cash register because my card rang insufficient funds. Meatball's needs, Meatball's life, Meatball had kept me alive for the last few weeks. I was officially broke. I hadn't been to work since May, since I had been taken from my lackluster life and thrust into the underworld—Cameron's world. This was the world where I had longed to be so that I could stay with Cameron. Now I belonged nowhere. After missing work for over three months, I had lost my job, though my salary had stopped coming into my bank account only a few weeks ago. The fact that it took so long for the school to figure out that Emily Sheppard, a once-dedicated student employee, wasn't showing up for work every day would have normally hurt my feelings. Nowadays I was indifferent to this. While I was getting